Sheraton Desk – Applying Veneer Textures

This is a desk I’m currently re-producing, based on a Sheraton piece at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

I have not started the finishing on this project yet. I will not be dying or staining, rather applying linseed oil, followed by shellac and French polish.

There is quite a bit of veneering involved and I usually don’t bother showing veneer colors within SketchUp. While I’m working in the shop, I’m using a SketchUp model without all the colors and textures. I will create component scenes showing dimensions and callouts of all the veneer shapes, but in default face colors. In this case I did show the 1/8-in. wide ebony bandings (as you can see in the following picture). The actual bandings are more complicated and have alternating lines of white maple. Applying texturing to the model is quite a bit of extra work, so I don’t typically do it, as there is no pay-off in the shop.

But in this case, I’ve textured and here are the results.

It will be interesting to see how close this comes to the final finish.